08/31/2012 Fantastic Friday!

Hello everyone and welcome back on this Friday at the end of the month. I can't believe August is already over; it just seemed to blast by. My mom was talking to me about Christmas presents last night, and I'm just not ready for that conversation. My general rule is that if it's not past either my birthday or Halloween, Christmas doesn't exist yet for me no matter what the store say. Anyway, let's get to something more important, shall we?

Today I bring you 'Destiny Can Be a Real Pain In the Ass' by William Hrdina. It's a short story with a kind of long title about a man who's supposed to be the savior of humanity, but he just isn't good at doing that. It's not that he's a supervillain or a bad person, he just isn't very good at being the magnificent person all the prophecies say he'll be.

Have you ever wondered how you'll make the world better? What if you were born and that's what you were told you'd do: Make the world better. This is the story about a man who was told just that, and he was raised to be all kinds of great, but no matter what he did nothing worked. He was just an average person to the chagrin of everyone who was trying to teach him the highest forms of education, and also teach him to perform miracles. Now as an old man, he wonders what he can actually do to save humanity.

I like this story because it shows what happens when a person is brought up being told they will do great things and the frustration that comes when they can't live up to those expectations. At the very least in their own mind. It also gives insight to the pressures someone goes through when that is the world they are raised in; they don't have a choice, it's just their life and their life is supposed to be special.

 'Destiny Can Be a Real Pain In theAss' is available for FREE on Smashwords, and is relatively short, so I recommend picking it up and reading it during a break or lunch. It's incredibly interesting and while I'm not 100% sure what's going on at the top of the cover, it's a good story that I think you would all enjoy.

Thanks everyone for stopping by again. I am tired, but I'll live. I'm still in the process to adjusting to my schedule, and while part of me isn't sure it'll ever happen, I will persevere. Luckily I have a three day weekend to recover, so with that being said there will not be a post on Monday. I will be back Wednesday, so please check in at that time for the latest post. Until then I hope everyone has a great and fun weekend!

08/29/2012 Writing Wednesday!

Hello everyone! I hope the week has been trying you well. I firmly believe that August went by too bloody quick, mostly because every time I look at a calendar I am convinced that the date it still like a week away, but nope, it's not! It's not that there's anything wrong with September (there's not, and I would like to believe it's the best month EVER) I just wasn't quite ready for it.

With 'The Light Rises' officially at the halfway point of Phase 1 Reread, I have been thinking a lot about editing lately. Especially since one it is done I have another story I have to dive into, and 'Rending the Seal' is longer. Editing is a time consuming process that everyone must do no matter how much they wish it would magically do itself. The problem is figuring out when your story is done being editing and ready for the world. I am learning now this is possibly something only robots know the answer to.

Going back through something I've already published is a humbling experience to say the least. It helps me see just how much I've grown as a writer, and since I published it myself I have the chance to make it better. I think this is a blessing that not all authors get, since if they want to do a new edition that isn't necessarily something they get to decide. Right now I'm just hoping that once Phase 1 is complete (which I'm hoping will be next week, maybe, we'll see) that Phase 2 goes quickly and smoothly. That's the thing with editing though; it never takes as long as you want it to, so I have to factor in NANOWRIMO into my plans just to be safe.

I know I've said it before, but I do recommend having a printed copy of your work to read from when editing. Especially if it's a longer story. I know that with the magic of technology you can use the Editing Tool in Word or whatever the Mac equivalent is, but it is seriously helpful to have a copy you can carry around with you (not in a laptop) that you can work from, and not just because a lot of jobs don't necessarily like you having your computer open all day while at work. Maybe part of it is the tactile sensation of working with your hands, or it could be because everything you've done is right in front of you (not that it isn't with a computer), I honestly don't know, but it makes everything so much easier. Maybe you forget to hit save on your document, or your computer decides it needs to update without your permission and now you need to figure out where you were before. There's no searching and possibly accidental page skipping when you are doing it by hand. That could just be me though, and everyone here knows that there are certain things I'm bias toward.

Right now though I am working on editing one story and preparing to jump into another. Sure it's tough, and I wish I was rich enough to have someone do it for me, but it will be incredibly satisfying once it's all done. I'm sorry to have done two things on editing in a row, but it has been what I've been focusing on for the last several weeks. I'm not sure how helpful it's been, but at the very least I hope you are all seeing how the process works.

Thanks for stopping by again. I'll like always be back on Friday with the weekly review. After that it will be off to enjoy my long weekend. Until then I hope everyone has a great rest of their week and I'll see you back here soon.

08/27/2012 Magnificent Monday!

Greetings everyone and happy Monday! I am on my 'normal' schedule this week, so I am slightly more awake than I was last week. Let's see how long that lasts, shall we? With my schedules flipping every week, I'm not sure how I'll be able to actually get my sleep schedule adjusted, but we'll see what happens I suppose.

I am almost to the halfway point of going over 'The Light Rises' for inconsistencies. I will say that reading through the story again after so long does help me appreciate it a bit more, though I can honestly say that I can tell it was written over a year ago. I'm sure a lot of authors go through this too, but being able to drastically tell the difference between your own styles is interesting if not a bit frustrating. Especially since you can look at something and want to go back in time and tell the past version of you not to do that because it either makes no sense, or you've figured out a better way to handle it. I won't do that though, because everyone knows my stance on time travel.

Another word to the wise; if anyone told transposing from a notebook to a computer was going to be a fast process, they were lying to you! Maybe it's because the notebook pages, my handwriting, and the font size 12 don't fit together perfectly, but I am constantly convinced I should be further along than I am, but then I look at the page number and have the urge to throw it across the room. This is not a process that happens overnight, as much as I think that would be awesome and some kind of witchcraft. I mean yes, I am a little happy that I get the chance to go into more specific detail about some things, and for all I know that's my downfall, but I seriously feel like I should be almost done with that notebook and about ready to jump into the next one. It's also kind of weird not having the slightest idea of how long something is going to be, even though it's finished in one medium. My currently guess is around 180, but we'll see what the future holds!

I appreciate everyone stopping by today. I wish there was more to report in the area of progress, but unfortunately I had to work this past Saturday and that brought a lot of work to a screeching halt. I'm not sure how I feel about having only one day in a weekend, but this weekend is sure to make up for it. (Yay! Three day weekend!) I will see everyone back here on Wednesday! As always if there are any topic suggestions, comments, questions, and/or emotional outbursts, please put them in the comments section below and I will address them as promptly as I can. Have a good week!

08/24/2012 Fantastic Friday

Hello everyone and welcome back for another Friday! I hope this week has seen everyone well! Though I'm tired, I'm looking forward to the weekend, even if it is kind of short for me. Let's get to work for today though, shall we?

Today I bring you 'Fool's Gold' by Angela Black. It's about the story of Raymond, a bard who finds himself one night in a tavern. In order to entertain them, he tells a fantastic story about hunting for a treasure beyond anyone's wildest dreams. Though the question everyone asks him, is if it's too fantastic to actually be as true as the man claims.

Sometimes everyone needs to learn a lesson, even if they don't know they need it, or even want it. The best way to teach them is by a cautionary tale, no matter what the cost may be. Raymond knows this all too well, and the last thing he wants is for people to repeat the mistakes he made all those years ago. So he tells them of the time he went hunting for treasure, and what that experience meant for him.

I picked this story today because frankly it's true. Everyone needs to take a step back sometimes and think about what they're doing. Something can seem lavish and only about what it's going to mean for them in the future, putting the well-being of others to the side-line. The story doesn't so much to hide what happens in the end, but it's getting there that's the adventure, and how Raymond decides to handle it that makes the story interesting.

'Fool's Gold' is available for FREE on Smashwords, so I suggest you take a bit of time to check it out. It hasn't been up for very long, but I'm sure it'll go into the Premium Catalog soon, so you'll be able to get it through other retailers as well at that point. It's also relatively short, so if you need something to read on your break or lunch, this is a good choice to pick up.

Thanks everyone for stopping by today! With my new schedule sometimes it's hard to be awake enough to get the posts taken care of, so I appreciate you all coming back while I work that out. I will be back on Monday, hopefully well-rested with a progress report regarding my transposing and re-reading. Until then, I hope everyone has a great weekend and I'll see you on Monday!

08/22/2012 Writing Wednesday!

Hello everyone! Sorry that the post is later than it has been. My schedule is a bit different every other week, so I have today off. I plan on spending part of my day relaxing and getting some necessary things done (like shopping so I can have lunch tomorrow) but I also plan on writing something. I haven't completely come up with what, but will happen. I also hope to play some video games, because Atlus owns my soul.

I would like to talk about motivation today. This is something that every writer has, and sometimes needs to do a bit of searching to find. Sometimes it had be harder than others, especially at times when it's hard to get yourself to do anything, but if you can find what motivates you to write, hold onto it as tightly as you can. It can be something as simple as you like the way it makes you feel, and you should use that to help you focus on writing. This is a bigger-picture sort of thing when it comes to motivation, which is awesome. I hope everyone has something that makes them feel that way.

It also comes in smaller forms, like for instance you can put off working on a particular story for a while either because you need a break or because life got in the way, but one day you hear a song playing and it fills you with memories of that story you had, and when you come home you pull it from the back-burner and get to working again. I call that the 'Theme Song Inspiration' is a little campy, I know, but it's true. That song makes you think about that story, and motivates you to get to work on it again. You remember just how much that story means to you, and suddenly, with that song in your head, you go back to that thing you love so much and work on it with all your heart.

Motivation could some just from having someone want to read something you wrote. It doesn't have to be good, or long, or anything that people would get out of context, but having people who want to read your stories helps you keep doing it. They will be your encouragement, and if they are really awesome will help you work on getting better by pointing out things that work and what doesn't.

Whatever you feel inspired or motivated by, keep it close as much as you possibly can. It will be what helps you get through the day sometimes, just knowing that you can come home to that and work on something that's important to you. After a rough day at work, sometimes all you need is to pull up your story's theme song and start typing.

Thanks everyone for stopping by again today. I'll be back on Friday with my normal review. Hopefully in a couple weeks I will have my re-reading of 'The Light Rises' done and I can get to phase 2, which will be going into the master file and getting that done. Once I'm ready for Phase 3, I will be putting my feelers out there, so stay tuned for that! For now everyone have a great rest of the week!

08/20/2012 Magnificent Monday!

Hello everyone and welcome back. I hope everyone had a good weekend, and had lots of fun! If you were someone that managed to go to Gen-Con....I am narrowing my eyes at you in jealousy, you just can't see it right now. My plans for this year had included going to the gaming convention, but when they announced my work was going to be closing, that plan got thrown out the door. So now I can only watch as pictures of people's swag starts being posted on the internet.

Anyway, enough about my losses, let's talk about other stuff! My reviewing of 'The Light Rises' is going relatively well. Of course it feels like it's going incredibly slow, but when I think about it, I'm on page 50 and it's only been a couple weeks, when I have time at work. That's actually fairly decent progress. I mean, sure I have 150-some pages to go, and that number seems ridiculously daunting, but it's less than before, so that's good! Having not looked at that story for so long though it's strange. Even though I wrote it, and you'd think I'd know every tiny detail about it, I keep finding things that either need more detail, just don't fit, or sentences that feel clunky. In the end I think everything will be even better than before!

I also worked on 'Daughter of the Shackled King' some last night, and I felt like a sad and sorry slacker about that story when I did. I love that story dearly, and I feel like I've been trying to get the transposing done forever, and go to look at it and realize I'm only just now getting to chapter four. This is a process that is must slower than I initially anticipated, and the only thing that's giving me some sort of consolation is that I have other stories that need to get taken care of before it can go into publication. So I still have time!

Thanks everyone for stopping by again today. I have Wednesday off this week, so my post should be at a decent time and length that day. I hope everyone's start to the week is an entertaining one! I'll see you in a couple days!

08/17/2012 Fantastic Friday!

Welcome back everyone! I hope your week saw you all well. I saw the Rifftrax Live: "Manos and the Hands of Fate' last night and let me tell you, that was wonderfully terrible. I can't wait for the next one they do live.

Today I bring you 'The Ghost Writer' by Will Jaeger. When a detective retires and decides to become a novelist it seems only natural they would go into the true crime genre. However, this particular detective has an informant known only as the Ghost Writer. He's helped him in the past, but now it might not be enough as a serial arsonist has shown up, using methods that no one on the force, or the planet, have seen before.

I picked this story because sometimes a crime drama is really what someone needs. I am a huge fan of the ones like Law & Order, CSI, and so forth, and I even failed my way through games like Heavy Rain (quick time events hate me...) and I was quickly drawn to this story because of my crime drama itch. I like the mystery, I like puzzles, and this story handles them very well. Who is this mysterious informant, and why do they keep themselves hidden from the one that's writing these stories? Especially when there is a real danger at hand? It's great!

You can pick up 'The Ghost Writer' for .99 on Smashwords, and I do recommend everyone taking a look and spreading the word. It was just recently published, so I'm sure it'll be on the other stores shortly. I definitely think you should give this a good read.

Thanks everyone for stopping by today. I look forward to seeing you on Monday where hopefully I will be a little more used to my schedule. Hopefully, we'll see. I hope your weekend is full of fun and that if it's stupidly hot where you're at, that you're able to find a place to cool down. Until Monday, have a great weekend!

08/15/2012 Writing Wednesday!

Hello everyone! Sorry this post is a tad late, I was dealing with some apartment issues and remembering why I don't want to live in one anyone. That aside let's focus on something a little more pleasant, like writing, and how much fun it is! Which will lead me back to a topic I've probably covered before...

Writing is both another job and a hobby for most authors. This is no different for myself in that I use it as something I'm pursuing to complete a goal, and also as a relaxation tool. When I'm stressed, angry, upset, bored, or whatever I'm feeling that day I can write and help keep myself focused and then relax. It's a great way to just let go of whatever was going on and get involved in a different world for a while.

Though I say writing is a job, I mean that in the sense of the amount of time it accompanies with the rest of my day/week. I don't consider myself a 'professional author', which and I could be wrong, I see a someone who dedicates all of their time doing nothing else but writing their stories. There are times when I consider whether or not I'd like doing that, but then I can't help but wonder what happens if/when I'd get burned out on it. Not to mention the fact it's incredibly difficult to start making money, and I have bills to pay.

To me, unless something amazing happens, writing will have to be the part-time job that I do as a hobby because it's super fun, and not the full-time job that I do every single day as a living. I'm not saddened by this, because if writing became my full-time job what would I do to relax and calm down after a hard day at work? The point where writing is considered more work than fun is when an author needs to take a step back and reflect on what's going on. If all a person does is work it's just going to build up stress, and having too much of that can cause a lot of problems that doctor's are still discovering today. So please, just have fun with your writing; you'll appreciate it more.

Thanks everyone for stopping by today, I hope that made sense. After this morning my head is a little scrambled. I'll be back on Friday though with my normal review, so please stop by and check it out then. For now though, I hope you all have a good rest of your week!

08/13/2012 Magnificent Monday!

Hello everyone and welcome to the start of a new week! I was all excited and ready to start my new schedule and the first thing that happens was I set my alarm for the wrong time, so rather than being woken up all rested, I woke up (thankfully early) realized my error, and had to rush through my morning routine. Luckily I have gotten things pretty much under control, but still, not a fun event.

As I mentioned before I have started re-reading 'The Light Rises' again in order to check for continuity errors. This has become a rather eye-opening experience and I hope in the end it will make all of my readers satisfied. Let's just say there is a lot more pink pen scribbled on those pages than I thought there would be. It's not because of continuity issues, well not all of it, there have been some and those are marked with a different kind of pink scribble.

I had initially thought I was going to feel sad or irritated coming back to something I had thought was done, but I feel strangely satisfied. I think it's because in the end I know it's going to be better than it was before, and I'm not saying that to sound arrogant of my own abilities, it's just the truth. It's been over a year since I finished and first published that book, and in that time I have worked on honing my skills and through trial and error, have worked to make stories flow as much as possible. This is something that each and every author experiences. It's not like you can take something from an author's earlier works, compare to their newest, and say that they are 100% exactly the same. Sure there is going to be a lot of similarities, but by the time you get to the most recent one, there are going to be subtle things that make the book easier to read, and more enjoyable. This is what I'm looking forward to.

I appreciate everyone stopping by for my post this morning. Hopefully this is going to be the start of a great week! I'll be back on Wednesday, hopefully after having the correct time set and everything. Until then have a good start to your week!

08/10/2012 Fantastic Friday!

Happy Friday everyone! I'm glad you have made it back and hopefully your week was full of nice weather and fun. I have started making progress reviewing 'The Light Rises' in the fashion I mentioned on Wednesday, so that is a good sign. For now though let's get to business.

Today I bring you 'Skyships and Airtunnels' by T.J. Dipple. It's about an airship crew taking part in an annual race through the skies. Darrel, the captain, is determined to win his ship and his crew their prize after five years of constant trying, and to do that he has to take his new skyship through the most dangerous airtunnel on the route.

Now normally things regarding really any sort of racing I usually just let my eyes glaze over and wait for it to be over (any Fast & Furious movies haven't gotten love from me) however, this idea intrigued me enough to take a look. I like how everything to characters did felt like part of normal life for them, so the descriptions didn't feel shoehorned in, and the exposition was more like a captain and his crew having normal conversation, not like Darrel was telling everyone on the ship how to make it work for the very first time. Everyone felt very competent, which was rather nice since the path Darrel instructed his crew to take was incredibly dangerous and if they didn't know what they were doing they'd all die. Especially since one mistake in the airtunnels means almost certain death for any crew, what with the lakes of magma running through them.

'Skyships and Airtunnels' is available on Smashwords for $1.20, so please go and take a look for yourselves. This is a story about trust at its very core, and the idea of everyone working as a unit toward a common goal, not for one person, but for everyone on board is great. You get the sense of how sports teams work as a unit, and how everyone needs to play their part in order to achieve absolute victory.

Thanks everyone for stopping by today. I'll be back on Monday, thankfully starting my normal schedule so hopefully I'll be more awake then. For now I hope everyone has a good weekend, and gets to see some pretty shooting stars from the meteor shower that's happening. Have fun and have a great weekend!

08/08/2012 Writing Wednesday!

Good day everyone, I hope your week is treating you well! I'm still adjusting to this new schedule, so it has been a bit slow going to me, but I'll work through it. I'm happy to be able to work again; it's great not to have to worry so much about expenses, even if my dreams don't necessarily want to agree. For now though I will keep going, since there is much to work on!

I wanted to talk about something that was brought up with me as a passing comment, but it honestly didn't cross my mind until that moment. When you're writing a series, you need to go back and read previous stories to make sure everything is cohesive in the plot. That means checking for continuity errors, location/organization/people names, and other such things. This is something I'm actually going to be starting today, but it feels a little silly I hadn't thought of it until it was pointed out to me.

Any series you write, even if it's just a two book collection consisting of the initial story and a prequel/sequel you need to make sure to check and make sure everything makes sense. Now admittedly you won't be able to do this until the prequel/sequel is done, since you're not going to be 100%  certain what references are going to be made at that point. Frankly I think this step gets over-looked (since I honestly haven't seen anyone actually talk about it before) because when you get to that point there is a lot of emphasis on editing for the most recent project. This is technically part of editing though, and you need to make sure that everything flows just right.

Something else I have realized about this step is that it's going to be important how you handle any possible continuity errors. It could be something small like a mention of where a person was, maybe it was assumed they were in a room with all the characters in one story, but in another you mention them walking in to join everyone halfway through the conversation. Since you're looking at your initial work, you have the option, and this is going to sound weird, to make the change in that version and not the new one. Authors put out new/revised editions all the time, so you shouldn't feel hesitant to do one yourself, especially if any changes you make actually improve the overall story.

Now remember, this step is going to feel like you're going over and editing your first story all over again, which you kind of are, however what you're looking for are not spelling and grammar errors (though if you find them, you may want to take care of those) you're simply looking to make sure things make sense. I've never seen a prequel/sequel in any form that doesn't reference the original in some way; this is why cameos exist. If you write a prequel/sequel without mention of previous works in some way, shape, or form, it's not going to feel like the same world. The references are the real reason you're going back and reading the original work; you want to make sure they're accurate.

The easiest way I believe to do this is to get the piece printed out. If you try to focus on it electronically you are actually limiting yourself and putting fate in the hands of machines. While everyone does rely on computer and such a lot more than some people would like to admit, telling yourself that you're only going to check the revisions on your computer means you are going to always remember where your place was by either keeping the file open to the page at all times, or by having a magical memory. The problem with this that you likely aren't going to work on it every single day of the week, which means there is time for you to forget where you were. Also computers tend to want to update by themselves to make sure they're running properly, meaning the file will close and you'll loose your place that way. This is why I recommend printing it out, and it also lets you see for yourself where you're making the revisions. Most office supply stores like Staples and Office Depot offer printing services, so I also recommend utilizing them to print out your documents. I've fought and lost with too many printers to deal with that myself again.

Thanks everyone for stopping by today. I hope the rest of the week sees you well. I will be back on Friday for my normal review day, so please remember to stop by and tell your friends about it. Until then, have a great rest of your week!

08/06/2012 Magnificent Monday!

Hello everyone and happy Monday! I hope you were all able to keep yourselves warm this last week. We hit record highs in my area, so that was a test of endurance. Thankfully my parents provided us with a new air conditioner, so that managed to help a lot. The heat made doing pretty much anything difficult, as it meant leaving the house, or the car, or whatever building I was in was met with a wall of ridiculous heat. It was awful.

I'm still adjusting to the new schedule of working, and today is looking like it's going to be rather tough. Though I set my alarm for a specific time, and I knew well enough that it was going to be fine, I woke up several times throughout the night absolutely convinced that I was going to be late. My plan is to load up on caffeine and do everything in my power to stay awake today. Though others will be starting today, so hopefully that will keep me focused.

I really look forward to the point where I feel comfortable bringing stuff to work on with me. Right now it's mostly able meeting people and trying not to look like a loner. The last thing I want to do is say 'I'm new! It's awesome to be here! This is my laptop, I'm going to appear to be ignoring you now.' something about that just seems like it won't work at all.

Last week I made the decision to lower the price of 'The Light Rises' and I'm sure many people are wondering why I did that. The main reason was rather simple; $2.99 is the average price of ebooks, and I didn't want to go beyond the average for my first full-length novel. The other reason is that with 'Rending the Seal' being in editing stages, I want to help encourage others to read the first book, and lowering the price is a great way to do that. At least it seems like it would be to me, but I'm not a marketing person, nor have I ever tried to be.

Thanks everyone for stopping by today. Be sure to come back on Wednesday for my advice post. I think I have the times figured out pretty well to balance the posts with the work schedule, though I'll admit I'll be happy when I go to 10 - 7 and get a bit more time to sleep before going into the waking world. For now I hope everyone has a great start to their week, and I hope you have a good day!

08/3/2012 Fantastic Friday!

Welcome every to another Friday posting! I hope this week treated you all well. I have started working, and while I'm tired, I'm grateful to have a job to go to. For now though, let's get right down to business.

I bring you 'PASCO' today by RK Moore. It's a short story that follows Max, a man that was given a job that a local temp agency told him to apply to. The problem is the man who interviewed him (if it can be called an interview) won't tell him what the job actually is and just offered it to him. Not wanting to get into trouble, and almost ready to give up from a long and fruitless job search, Max accepts the offer not knowing fully what he's in store for.

The main reason I picked this story is because it scratched a little nerdy itch for me. PASCO is an organization that deals with the unknown, and I seriously love stuff like that. This story reminds me of the B.P.R.D. (Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense) from Hellboy, but also as the touch of humor that 'The Laundry' does, and I can get behind that. It's a delight to read and I wanted to share it with everyone here.

'PASCO' is available on Smashwords for $1.49, so please tell your friends to go there and check it out. I don't believe it qualifies for the Premium Catalog at this time, so Smashwords is going to be where you want to pick it up from. Go check it out and tell your friends all about it to help give this author a big push!

Thanks everyone for stopping by today! As a reminder, the price has been lowered on 'The Light Rises' so definitely check it out and let everyone know! So far the price update has only hit Smashwords, but give it some time and it should go to the other retailers as well.  For now though I must be off, I wanted to make sure I got this up before I left to give the review the most time possible to get around the web. I hope you all have a fun and safe weekend, and if you're in the Washington area, have an awesome Seafair Weekend!

08/1/2012 Writing Wednesday!

Hello again and welcome back. I hope your week is seeing you well. I'm sorry this post is a little late, but an appointment that I couldn't avoid happened this morning, and it was a long one. I start my new position tomorrow, so the post for Friday may end up being a bit later in the day, but I still do my best to get it done before I go in.

Today I wanted to talk about exposition in your work. This is a spiral that a lot of authors get sucked into without even realizing it and it takes a lot of work to get out. What I'm talking about are the details. I was caught in this myself and it has taken practice and focus to make sure that I don't go overboard, especially since my works tend to fall on the longer side. Details are important, but going crazy with them is only going to make things drag on for a bit longer than is necessary. I'm not talking about cutting all your sentences down to be short and concise; sometimes giving a good amount of detail is necessary, but it's how you present it that's going to make the difference in the end.

The place people get stuck with this is during dialogue. At first glance the temptation is to give your description, followed by dialogue, and then go from there. The thing that you need to remember is that humans tend to accentuate whatever they're saying with hand motions, body language, and other such things. The key is to take those elements and use them to help bring the environment to life a bit more. I'm not saying don't give any details of the area the characters are in, I'm saying give what you think is needed to give the reader an idea of what they're dealing with and let the character's actions help that along.

This is the point where technical writing and creative writing join together. Now I've never considered myself a technical writer, and it's entirely possible that I'm way off in my thinking, so if that's the case I apologize. However, technical writing is about being efficient, concise, and still getting the point across in a way the reader understands. The aspects of creative writing is making a world and characters your own, and it's when you join creative and technical writing that you truly get the magic going.

I appreciate everyone for stopping by today to check things out. Like I said I will be doing my normal Friday post, I just can't gurantee the time. I would also like to say thanks to anyone who helped spread the word about the Smashwords Summer Sale that ended as of yesterday. I'll see what I can do about making a new coupon later either this month or possibly September (yay birthday sale!) so keep your eyes open for that. For now I wish everyone a fun and safe rest of your week!